working al fresco

A lot of creative types live out West. Meet Adam Fresco, a writer, director, producer and performer from Titirangi. Interview & portrait photography: Sheryl Burson

Adam lives in Titirangi with his wife, son and two dogs.His first job in Aotearoa was as Director of South Seas Film and Television School and he is now Producer for West Auckland’s new family attraction, film studio and live stage venue, Whoa! Studios in Henderson. A regular professional film reviewer for New Zealand’s premiere online film site, Flicks, Adam also writes the plays for New Zealand schools touring theatre, The Ugly Shakespeare Company, and is founder and artistic director of DramaTrain NZ, offering training in acting for all ages and experiences for stage and screen.

What is the best advice that you have been given?
The late Jack Rosenthal, a wonderful British playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of Coronation Street, over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations, told me: “Writers write.” Simple as that. I’ve met a lot of people who tell me they could write, would write or will write, but at the end of the day? Writers write. Plumbers plumb. Singers sing. Bricklayers lay bricks. Writing’s the easy part. It’s the editing and rewriting, the craft, patience and discipline of writing well, and writing often, that are hard. Fun too. But hard. When people tell me they’re writers, but have never actually written anything, I tell them in that case, I’m a NZ All Black – only I’ve never picked up a rugby ball in my life.

What is your favourite quote?
“This world is full of the most outrageous nonsense.”
― Nikolai Gogol, The Nose (1836)

I’ve adapted Gogol’s short story for the stage several times. It’s a wonderful, existential satire that appeals to the
surrealist in me and to the writer. Look closely and the world, and the people in it, really are stranger than fiction. Case in point: President Trump. You can’t make this stuff up and if you did, who’d believe you?

How would you define creativity?
Oscar Wilde’s preface to his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), is my starting point for any definition of art, the artist or creativity. It’s a short manifesto of sorts that ends: “All art is quite useless.”

What do you like most about living in Titirangi?
I love it when people complain about the rain in Titirangi. It’s the Waitakere rainforest. There’s a clue in the name. And rain? I lived in Glasgow four years! I had rain, freezing winds and bagpipes to contend with. That, and being so close to the West Coast and Waitakere Ranges, are my favourite things about living here.

Where’s your favourite place to work?
Living in Titirangi, by the sea and surrounded by trees and greenery, I’m spoilt for wonderful places to work. And by “work” I mean think. And by “think”, I mean walk the dogs and hum tunelessly. There’s a waterfall, on the Zig-Zag track, a walk that starts near Titirangi village, that goes down through Atkinson Park to Titirangi Beach and French Bay. After a heavy rainstorm, or better yet during a titanic downpour, I like to sit by the waterfall, imagine it’s my office, and write in my head. Movies, novels, plays, poems and complaint letters to local cafes about how my coffee was served in a cup that offended me for a reason I’m yet to invent.

What do you do to relax?
I’m a movie nut. I love film. From all over the world. Great TV too. Theatre. Books. Art. Poetry. Comics. I’m a glutton for art, with no desire or ability to discern high from low culture. If I like it, if it inspires or moves me, makes me laugh or cry or think, that’s all I ask. What more could I want?

Who are the artists you most admire?
In no particular order? I’d say I’ve been most inspired by my father’s (Monte Fresco MBE) photography, the life and works of Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Kurt Vonnegut, Frida Kahlo, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Chuck Palahniuk, Marlon Brando, Takeshi Kitano, Irvine Welsh, Groucho Marx, Steven Berkoff, and I could go on and on, but all said and done, I’d far rather swear on a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare than a Bible. The writing’s better.

What code do you live by?
I guess I’m a Humanist, like Kurt Vonnegut, who said: “If you can do no good, at least do no harm.”
And a Surrealist.So maybe I’d add to that: “Do no harm, but do so whilst wearing a large false moustache, a pink top hat, and carrying a fish on your shoulder named Kevin.”

“This world is full of the most outrageous nonsense.”

― Nikolai Gogol, The Nose (1836)

If you want to explore more of Adam’s work, producing, writing, directing, teaching, reviewing and performing, see below:

http://whoastudio.co.nz

http://www.flicks.co.nz/member/Adam-Fresco

http://ugly.org.nz/about-us.html

Grace DramaTrain.co.nz presents ‘Grace’ – a short film written & directed by Adam Fresco. A 10-minute thriller, in which he prooves family can be murder (warning: contains adult language & themes) Shot on location in Auckland, New Zealand. / Duration: 10 minutes. Cinematography mentored by James Bartle (‘The Quiet Earth.’) /
Original score by ART HEIST (Chris Scott) Copyright: DramaTrain.co.nz